RHODRI MORGAN described his plans for a healthier, wealthier and smarter Wales when he delivered the annual HSBC lecture at the University of Wales College, Newport.

Speaking on the theme of change and the economy, the First Minister told how Wales has led the world in the pace of economic change for 250 years and was the first country to have more people working in industry than in agriculture.

"A truly mind-boggling change has taken place over the last 35 years," he said, recalling how Wales's workforce of 100,000 coalminers in the 1960s has been reduced to less than a thousand today, and how 90,000 steelworkers have dwindled to 7,500.

"In a small economy like Wales it is staggering the number of jobs that have disappeared, but Wales has survived by diversifying.

"As of this moment, we are showing the rest of the UK a clean pair of heels.

"It's been a good period coming at a time of enormous difficulties in the global economy." Mr Morgan believes Wales is as close to full employment now as it can ever expect to be: "Wales has about 15 per cent of the extra jobs that have come to the UK, despite being only five per cent of the population," he said.

Referring to the legacy of the 1980s, he said: "We are still fighting a phenomenon which produced communities fractured by crime, drug and alcohol abuse and the evaporation of the sense of progress which shapes lives in constructive ways.

"Even though unemployment is low there is still a big mess which has to be cleared up from past high unemployment and the loss of the ability to be a breadwinner."

Mr Morgan believes we have to re-invent ways of expressing social solidarity by harnessing the efforts of individuals for the common good.

"Just because you become better off doesn't mean you have to sacrifice some of those Welsh values which got people through the hard times of the 1930s and the 1980s," he said.

He spoke of four broad themes which should be priorities for the next Asse-mbly in order to sustain social solidarity in an era of greater prosperity and near full-employment.

These were: reducing economic inactivity, preventing and diverting from crime, ensuring better health and building and rebuilding communities.

"The Wales we want to create is one where the conditions and institutions combine the best of the traditions handed down to us, along with taking responsibility for ourselves. "This means political institutions like the Assembly taking responsibility and not blaming others for what's being done to us.

"We should take responsibility for allocating the money, developing policies, working with unions and creating the kind of Wales where everybody feels they have a stake in society and can see hope where previously there may have been despair.

"These measures, combined with what has already happened and will continue to happen in the training and employment field, will create the healthier, wealthier and smarter Wales that we all want to see."

Thanking the first minister, vice-chancellor Profes-sor James Lusty, said: "We pride ourselves on being a community university and we see ourselves as a source of social, educational and economic regeneration in south-east Wales.

"I hope this lecture will act as a stimulus to today's students and spur them on to even greater success in the future."

MBA student Xianghua Luo from China said: "I was very impressed with the lecture. "Wales is attracting a lot of investment from abroad and in my opinion the Chinese people would be very interested in coming and doing business with the Welsh."

*Pictured: Student Prameelarani Nikku makes a point to Rhodri Morgan. Also pictured is student Sushmitha Penta